Financial Mail and Business Day

Businesses must tackle the hard truths of employee expectations

• Challenges companies face are real, but so is employee dissatisfaction with what they are paid

Marc Privett ● Privett is GM at Simplify.hr.

Almost everything and everyone has been affected, including the employment landscape for employers and employees.

As we continue moving into the “new normal”, it’s essential that business owners and managers take cognisance of the shift in priorities across skill and employee bases. We recently completed a research survey with more than 15,000 survey respondents, and have identified strong trends coming through from employed individuals in SA.

About 66% were employed (46.95% full time, 19.05% on contract or part-time), with the remaining 34% unemployed. The gender split was 62.25% female, 37.31% male and 0.44% nonbinary, and the ages ranged from Generation Z (under 25) at 14.34%, Generation Y or “Millennials” (25—42) at 65.73%, Generation X (43—60) at 18.19% and Baby Boomers (60+) at 1.74%.

Coming from all nine provinces, they are employed in a comprehensive and diverse range of job sectors. And they confirmed what we all know: what worked before 2020 is no longer the desired status quo. The data highlighted that businesses have to make significant changes to the way in which they view, and work with, their employees, or they will lose them.

The first change is that of the mindset of “everyone who is employed in SA is lucky to have a job”. The landscape has permanently shifted, and employees demand more. They are more willing to resign, more active in looking for other jobs while employed, and are also taking advantage of the new ways of working the pandemic has given us.

Business owners or managers who ignore this run the risk of losing their talent to the “Great Resignation”. This term, coined by Dr Anthony Klotz and now globally recognised, refers to “an ongoing economic trend in which employees have resigned voluntarily from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021.”

There are many reasons for this trend, but it appears the desire for flexibility, greater quality of life, improved worklife balance, relocation to less urbanised or congested geographies, stress and burnout are all causes. SA’s high unemployment rate may more than likely preclude this trend from having as great an impact locally as for example in the US, but local reports indicate that it still cannot be ignored.

BUSINESSES ARE TRYING TO RECOVER… SALARIES HAVE BEEN CUT, STAYED STATIC. BUT EMPLOYEES DON’T CARE. THEY HAVE TO LIVE

Taking root among our professional and highly skilled sectors, the effect of this trend on the local market is further worsened by the mass exit of SA skills to other countries. This means business owners and managers need to ensure maximum alignment with employees, together with an openness to embrace change and a shift in traditional models. This is no longer a luxury for management to think about; it is a necessity to attract and retain talent.

In a Simplify.hr report, the overwhelming majority of employed respondents (62.5%) indicated that they preferred working entirely from home (20.07%) or a hybrid environment (42.08%). Almost 70% of respondents indicated that they would change their jobs based solely on this.

So yes, there are challenges associated with remote working for employers and employees, but it is becoming obvious that business must solve these challenges to retain their talent and attract job seekers. While challenges range from higher security risk, lack of insight into employee activity, distractions, team-building difficulties, lack of employee self-service tools, time management, isolation and reduced supervision, technology continues to evolve.

From intuitive recruitment software available to help businesses find, manage and recruit quality hires, through to developments in hardware and software solutions, including those focused on remote workflow demands and security, the technology exists. Businesses will have to start considering how to invest in the type of infrastructure needed to provide more flexibility for staff.

Remuneration is another key issue. We all know how the cost of living has risen, and that businesses are trying to recover from the past couple of years. Salaries have been cut, stayed static or risen minimally. But employees don’t care. They have to live, and remuneration has become a key dissatisfaction point for them.

The research data shows that more than 5,000 of the respondents are dissatisfied with their salaries and are looking for other jobs or would be open to other jobs if approached. Interestingly, of that total more than half are from lower, mid, or senior management. This indicates that we’re reaching a dangerous threshold in companies of employee dissatisfaction to the point of top management personnel resigning.

So, while economic challenges affecting SA businesses are real, so is the level of employee dissatisfaction at what they are earning. Businesses need to start having transparent conversations with their employees, or risk losing them.

While challenges to businesses are big, they are not insurmountable. I believe businesses need to really understand what their employees want and then open channels of dialogue about what is realistic and what can be implemented.

To survive in this “new normal”, businesses must start working with employees to rebuild themselves, our economy and workplaces.

THE BOTTOM LINE

en-za

2022-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://tisobg.pressreader.com/article/281779928160387

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